Second squatter who killed woman, stuffed her in duffel bag in Kips Bay, gets 20 years 18%
By Molly Crane-Newman0%
6/26/2026, 3:53:32 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 5 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Appeal to Emotion, and Loss Aversion, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 24.4% saturation with 181 hits. Analysis detected 660 faulty-reasoning hits from 742 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 33.1% and a BS Rank of 18% (18,073 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 82.60% of the article peer group.
A Bronx woman who carried out the brutal murder and home invasion robbery of a beloved single mom “on the edge of a whole new chapter after decades of caring for others” was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the Kips Bay killing on Friday.
The term was handed down to Kensly Alston, 20, for fatally beating Nadia Vitels inside the victim’s new place on E. 31st St. near Third Ave. on March 10, 2024, with help from Halley Tejada, of Manhattan, who received the same sentence in April.
Both defendants previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Alston and Tejada, who were 18 and 19, respectively, at the time of the chilling murder, lunged at an unsuspecting Vitels as she arrived with her belongings for a Sunday morning move-in.
Authorities previously said they believed the teen couple had been squatting inside the unit while it was vacant.
Alston battered Vitels over the back of her head at least five times with a pan, ultimately stuffing her lifeless body into a duffel bag and into a closet, the court heard Friday.
Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Clerkin said the young couple fled the scene in the victim's car and brazenly treated themselves to new iPhones, a diamond engagement ring, video games and dinners with the slain woman's credit card on a wanton shopping spree.
They would spend a week on the lam in Pennsylvania before their arrests by U.S. marshals, living large and unperturbed by the gore they had perpetrated.
Describing a brutal skull injury suffered by Vitels, Clerkin said it was “the kind of fracture seen when someone is struck by a train or jumps from a tall height.”
Vitels immigrated to Oklahoma from her native Moscow in Russia as a young woman, going on to a storied career working in the nonprofit world and in marketing, the Daily News previously reported.
Her last gig was working with her son at an environmentally focused company he founded with a friend from college, Earth Brands.
The company produced biodegradable, compostable cups to combat the scourge of plastic cups littering campuses.
In a heartbreaking victim impact statement he read before a packed courtroom, Misha Vitels, 23, drove home the multi-layered grief resulting from his mother's murder.
He said Vitels, a natural-born entrepreneur, never had much money but knew how to stretch a dollar, making him feel “so spoiled and so loved” growing up.
“My mom and I were a family of two,” he said.
“It was just us against the world.
We were a small, tight-knit family, and she was everything to me.
She was the most resilient person I've ever known.
She took care of her own parents.
She took care of me.”
Not only did Alston steal the life of the only family member he had, Misha said, but the future of a woman on the cusp of focusing on herself after spending her whole life looking after others — starting with a trip to Spain just two weeks before her murder.
She had spent the last three years minding her sick parents.
“She was finally on the edge of a whole new chapter after decades of caring for others,” Misha said.
“She deserved that more than any single other person.
But, in an instant, all of it was ripped away,” he continued, saying Alston “stole the years she had left to live for herself, the laughter she still had coming.”
“The happiness of being Nadia,” he said, “not just mom or daughter or caregiver.”
Before imposing the agreed-upon term, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Rachel Pauley asked Alston if she had anything to stay.
The 20-year-old, her voice quiet and hoarse, responded, “I'm sorry.”
The judge then addressed Mishsa, saying, “I think it's brave to have come here to speak, and you will have another opportunity to voice your opinion when the parole board considers Ms.
Alston's release.
If I had the power in me to make things truly right and to give you back your mother, believe me, I would.”
In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who attended the sentencing, said his thoughts were with the victim's family.
“While I hope today’s sentencing can provide some closure, it will not bring Ms.
Vitels back,” Bragg said.
“My heart is with her loved ones, who continue to feel her loss every day.”
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76%flagged-word coverageMisha Vitels
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